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My son, who’s 7, has recently been having problems at school, fighting mostly.  However, Thursday I got a disturbing phone call from my wife.  Apparently, he told a classmate he was going to “kill himself”.  The other boy was scared, and of course told his parents who, in turn, called the school.  The social worker at the school called my wife and informed her of the situation.

The first thing I thought was, “god, what is this?”.

I was scared, of course -I don’t know how to handle this. I called a doctor friend who is a child psychologist and got advice on how to talk to my son about it, and I did.  My son’s main concern was that when his mother and I fight he thinks we might get a divorce because of the harshness of my voice and the name calling that unfortunately I am guilty of. 

I reassured him that his mother and I are nowhere near divorce, and he seemed to feel better. Only now, I realize that I’ve been neglecting his feelings and obviously causing damage.

There’s more work to do at home, and this thing affects not only us who have PTSD - but those around us, too.  A friend of mine said, “Hey, if you can fight for your country, you can do this”.  He’s right.  Now that I understand what’s going on, I have to work harder, that’s all.  Wouldn’t it be a shame to survive war, and come back only to cause more damage at home?